We didn’t have enough warehouses, and now there’s a space race
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Illustration: Peter and Maria Hoey
 
Dear reader,
After World War II, executives at a small Japanese car company named Toyota developed a system for manufacturing that became known as “just-in-time” logistics. It aimed to deliver component parts of an engine or other features “just in time” before they were needed for assembly.

This philosophy grew to become the dominant way of thinking about manufacturing and retail. If you’re predicting exactly how many people will buy your products, produce and ship only that amount of demand, you don’t waste money on storing inventory, and earn higher profits. It works great—until it doesn’t.

Prospect senior editor Gabrielle Gurley writes in our latest issue about how just-in-time failed in the supply chain crisis, leading to a mad scramble for warehouse space. Rents for warehouse space are soaring, and Amazon in particular has massively upscaled its warehouse locations, setting a disturbing standard in the industry for backbreaking work, constant surveillance, and hostility to labor.

You can read Gabrielle’s story here.
You can read all the stories in our special issue, How We Broke the Supply Chain, as they are released, at
prospect.org/supplychain
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David Dayen, Executive Editor
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